


Til There Was You

by politics_and_prose



Series: All That Heaven Will Allow [4]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2018-11-03
Packaged: 2019-08-16 20:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16502462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/politics_and_prose/pseuds/politics_and_prose
Summary: David is nervous, Katherine is frustrated, Jack is mildly unhelpful and Sarah is slightly amused.





	Til There Was You

“I need your help.”

Jack smirked to himself as he looked up from his drawing to see his best friend slash occasional roommate standing awkwardly in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. Davey had been antsy and pacing back and forth all day while he was in the apartment and it was only a matter of time before he finally spouted off about whatever was bugging him. Jack was pleasantly surprised to know it was _his_ counsel that Davey sought.

They spent a little less time together now that Davey was back in school. His room and board was free so Davey tended to take advantage of it. There were times, though, that he preferred to stay downtown with Jack in the apartment he insisted on chipping in on rent for even though he rarely spent the night.

“With?” he asked casually, trying not to sound too excited at the fact that the smartest guy he knew couldn’t figure something out.

“Katherine.”

_Oh_.

Jack had no problem with Davey and Katherine dating. In fact, he couldn’t think of any two people better suited for each other. Aside from a couple former newsies who shared an apartment in Harlem “for money reasons”, of course. But the thing was, he didn’t really want to think about the two of them together. It wasn’t a jealousy thing, he didn’t want Katherine back, but he knew what it was like to feel a certain way about her and to have her feel a certain way about him.

It made him wonder if Katherine felt the same way about Davey that she had about _him_. And, honestly, he didn’t want to know the answer.

He heard Davey shift and realized he hadn’t said anything in response. “Okay,” he decided. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s _wrong_ ,” Davey answered, shifting again. “Not really. It’s just … something I’ve been thinking about but I don’t know how to, y’know, do it.”

“Do _it_?” Jack asked, eyes wide. “You wanna …”

“No!” Davey shouted, moving closer to him and holding his hands out, almost as if he was trying to contain the words in the space between them and not let them out into the universe. The reaction made Jack chuckle and that earned him a glare from his pal. “It’s not funny.”

“Pretty funny from here. But if it ain’t about sex, what don’t ya’ know how to do?”

Davey mumbled something and Jack had to keep himself from asking his friend to speak louder. Whatever it was, Davey was obviously uncomfortable or embarrassed about it.

This conversation was drastically different from the one he’d had with Race however many years ago. The younger kid had come to him, asking about sex and being with someone and _would it be wrong if it was a guy I wanted all this with_? Despite the subject matter, Race had been open and unafraid. Davey was anything but.

Finally, his friend spoke. “I wanna kiss her.”

Jack waited for Davey to continue, to explain what he was scared of or embarrassed about, but the words never came. Furrowing his brow, Jack asked, “And what don’t ya’ know?”

Davey shifted and shoved his hands in his pockets. “How do I know if she wants me to? Or, y’know, how to … do it?”

“She wants you to,” Jack answered seriously, confidently. “You gotta trust me on that. And, I mean, ya’ know _how_ , right?” When Davey didn’t answer, Jack nearly fell out of his seat in realization. “You ain’t never kissed a girl before?”

Davey was silent for a long minute before shaking his head. “This was a mistake. I should have asked …”

“Who? Crutchie? Finch? Ain’t neither of them ever kissed a girl. Mush? He’d be too embarrassed ta’ talk about it.”

“I just … it’s pathetic, right? That I ain’t kissed a girl before. Least not since I grew up.”

“Ho ho!” Jack crowed jovially. “That mean ya’ were kissin’ girls when you was Les’ age?” A shrug was his only response. Jack sat there for a minute, simply grinning at his friend, before nodding to the empty chair at the table. “If we’re gonna talking about it, ya’ might as well take a load off.”

“Why do I feel like this is going to be like a class I never signed up for?” Davey asked, resigned, as he sat.

“Hey, ya’ want the best advice, ya’ gotta get it from the master. Tha’s me, just in case you was wonderin’.”

Jack couldn’t hold back a bark of laughter when Davey groaned and let his head thunk down onto the table.

\--

Sarah snorted from the stove as Katherine’s head hit the kitchen table with a loud thud. “You okay over there?”

“Why won’t your dumb, chivalrous, adorable brother _kiss me_?” Katherine asked, her voice muffled by her arms and hair.

Sarah froze, the spatula hovering over the potatoes in the skillet. “I’m sorry?”

Katherine turned and pushed her hair from her face. “It’s been over a month and he hasn’t kissed me. I know he _wants_ to. I can see it in his eyes when he looks at me sometimes. And he kisses me on the cheek! What’s another inch to the left or right?”

“Do you really think I’m the right person to talk to this about? I mean, he’s my brother.”

“Look, I have three options when talking about David. You, Les and Jack. And I think the latter are at the same maturity level. I’m sure there’d be at least one rendition of Katherine-and-Davey-sittin’-in-a-tree by this point. But you’re level-headed and a girl and know him better than anyone. So _why won’t he kiss me_?”

Sighing, Sarah returned to her work on dinner. “Maybe he’s scared,” she said, her eyes not on her friend. “He’s never dated a girl like you before. And since he got old enough to really date, you’re, y’know, the only one who’s lasted longer than a few days.”

“I’m not scary!” Katherine cried. “Jack said the same thing. Not about kissing me, of course, because he wasn’t …”

“Can we please not talk about you and Jack while we’re talking about you and David?” Sarah requested.

“Why? Still crushing on him?” Katherine asked, and Sarah could hear the grin in her voice.

“Absolutely not,” Sarah answered as confidently as she could. “I just don’t need the mental images of you with both of them.”

“Like at the same time?” Katherine asked, a little grin on her face. She laughed as Sarah felt her cheeks heat up, knowing she must have been bright red. “Don’t worry. I know you didn’t mean that. But since I can’t make your brother blush right now, you’re my favorite target.”

“You’re as bad as Jack. Basically the same person, at times.”

“ _Anyway_. Can we get back to the fact that you think your brother, my _boyfriend_ , is afraid of kissing me?” Katherine asked, a pouting tint to her voice. “Do you really think that?”

“Not in a scared way, like he’s not hyperventilating or something. Just … David likes to be good after everything he does. He wouldn’t cook when anyone was home until he was fifteen and sure he wasn’t going to accidentally burn something. And, Kath, you have to know how much your relationship means to him.” Sarah knew that her brother was making a real effort to make things work with Katherine despite the fact that it was wearing him pretty thin between school, working a part time job, living with Jack, unofficially teaching the younger newsies some school stuff and remembering to take care of himself.

“I do,” Katherine agreed, her voice soft and fond. “It means a lot to me too.”

“I know it does. Which is why I’m going to give you some advice that’s probably going to irritate you.”

Katherine sighed. “I just need to wait it out, don’t I?”

Grinning at the potatoes, Sarah nodded. “Sorry, Kath, but I think you do. He’ll get there. And if you feel about him the way I know he feels about you, I bet you’ll find it worth the wait.”

Groaning, Katherine let her head drop back down to the table. Sarah chuckled and turned off the stove. “Roast should be done soon. Go wash your hands, you’ve got ink on them.”

\--

David couldn’t help but wonder if Jack had said something to Katherine about their conversation. They were out on another date, this time a Sunday afternoon picnic down at the Battery, but their conversation was a little more tense than usual.

If David were Jack, he would just call it like it was, find out what was happening and try to move them past it. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same bravado so he just smiled at her and launched into a somewhat awkward retelling of a lecture he’d sat through on Ancient Rome.

He could tell Katherine was restless and it was putting him more on edge. After a lame ending to his story, he gathered all of his courage and sat up, turning to fully face his girlfriend. “Did Jack say something to you?”

He must have startled her out of her head because she looked over at him with a slight tint of pink in her cheeks. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You’re – it’s like you’re not really here with me today and I was wondering if that was because Jack said something to you.”

“About what?” she asked, her voice curious.

He took in the way she looked, her red hair blowing in the slight breeze, her cheeks pink, and a confused little smile on her face. It made his heart skip a beat and then start beating double-time. He had a brief flash of panic when he thought he might be having a heart attack, but Katherine smiled a little more, still confused, and tilted her head, and he realized it wasn’t a heart attack at all.

It was, however, something he definitely wasn’t willing to put a name to.

Shaking his head, he let his eyes continue their journey. He didn’t have words. All of his friends would have laughed to see him speechless. Katherine, however, reached out to him, her smile faltering a little. Her hand landed on his cheek just as she quietly asked, “David?”

And that was it. There was no second thought, let alone any first thought, as David leaned forward and pressed his lips to Katherine’s.

She responded almost instantly and David felt himself relax for what felt like the first time since he wanted to kiss her in the elevator at The Sun.

The kiss didn’t last long but David felt like the richest man in the world when he pulled back and opened his eyes. Katherine’s eyes were still closed, her lips slightly parted, and David was sure he’d never seen anyone more beautiful in his entire life.

He smiled, waiting for her to open her eyes and look at him. It took a beat or two but when she did, her own smile put his to shame. It was bright and wide and all teeth and he felt his heart do that crazy skip then double thing again, which he figured he would have to get used to going forward.

“What’re you thinking?” David asked softly, his hand moving up gently brush a few locks of hair from her cheek.

“Took you long enough,” Katherine laughed before surging forward and kissing him again.

**Author's Note:**

> My muse for these two has been insane these last two days. I don't think I'm sorry about it.


End file.
